And the award for the least likely Hollywood celebrity to open a coffee shop goes to Quentin Tarantino.
As with everything Quentin Tarantino, the backstory is complicated. We can’t just go back to the beginning in order to tell the story accurately. We have to tell it like a Christopher Nolan movie, by starting somewhere in the middle, then have a cinematic flashback, then fast-forward to modern times.
In 2021 Quentin Tarantino purchased the 100-year-old Vista Theater in the Los Feliz neighborhood off Los Angeles, California. Attached to the theater was an empty space he renovated, and it is here that he recently opened Pam’s Coffy – coffee shop designed by the man himself with all his idiosyncrasies included.
Coffy is an interesting play on the spelling of the word coffee, you’re probably thinking, and you’re not wrong. Coffy was named after the 1973 film “Coffy”, starring Pam Grier, the leading actor in Quentin Tarantino’s movie Jackie Brown.
I remember how I mentioned the coffee shop was designed by Quentin Tarantino himself, who is known for being just a tad eccentric? Well he’s overseeing the interior design, and included oversized vintage posters from movies like “Coffy” and “Goliath”, and old-school TVs playing VCRs tapes from the ‘70s.
Pam’s Coffy will feature coffee roasted by Jones Coffee Roasters, who’s claim-to-fame is their custom blend they created for Pam’s Coffy called Bold Black Mamba – a reference to the name of Uma Thurman’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” movies. Snacks and pastries are being supplied by LA’s Cake Monkey bakery complete with cereal bowls costing just $5 a bowl in homage to Quentin Tarantino’s love of cereal obviously.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the parallels between Quentin Tarantino opening a coffee shop, and the role coffee often plays in his movies. One only needs to remember the open scene of Quentin Tarantino’s 1992 hit “Reservoir Dogs” where a group of men sit around a table in a diner chit-chatting about pop culture before what would be most of their last day on God’s green earth. Or take for example the opening of Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 “Pulp Fiction” that features John Travolta’s character Vincent Vega and Samuel L. Jackson’s character Jules Winnfield drinking coffee while covered in blood.
It all boils down to Quentin Tarantino’s use of the simple act of enjoying a cup of coffee before, during, or after a horrific and oftentimes blood event in his movies.
With that I’ll bid you adieu with the hope that if you’re ever in LA you’ll visit Quentin Tarantino’s coffee shop Pam’s Coffy.
